Prefab: Blue Sky Homes prototype in Yucca Valley

Blue Sky Prefab Home Picture

The pitch on this prefab prototype in the desert actually came from AEP Span, the company that manufactured the roof. The design is a prototype from Blue Sky Homes, which touts the light-gauge galvanized steel frame as a less costly alternative to some of the custom structural steel modular designs winning magazine spreads. The design, by Palm Springs-based o2 Architecture, is a kit of parts assembled on site and meant to be both site-specific and flexible enough to work in other settings. For more details on the cost and construction time -- and for more photos -- click to the Read More.

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Prefabricated housing seems an unlikely ally in the fight against climate change, but a new San Francisco company is setting out to construct factory-built homes that create as much energy as they use - reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with operating buildings.

Zeta Communities, which is headquartered in South of Market and owns a manufacturing plant in San Leandro, is close to completing its first "zero energy" townhome in Oakland and is working with a developer on a proposed 30-unit studio apartment building in Berkeley.

The firm plans to build segments of housing units indoors and ship them to development sites for assembly.

Modern, Naturally Prefab Houses

A steel-and-glass prefab home connects to the outdoors.

Modern and Natural Prefabricated House Picture

When Boston architect Jim Higgins purchased a little gray house and an adjoining plot of land on Spinney Creek in Eliot, Maine, he thought he had found the perfect project. His plan was to fix up and sell the existing house and build another traditional New England-style home next door. Instead, he built a low-lying, rectilinear house sheathed in corrugated galvanized steel -- a far cry from the shingled Cape Cod-style homes that surround it.